Sen. Ron Wyden Fields Questions at Packed and Energetic Portland Town Hall
On Feb. 25 at David Douglas High School in East Portland, Oregon’s senior senator, Ron Wyden, addressed a raucous and supportive crowd in what he called his 11th town hall in eight days. Dressed in blue jeans, Nike tennis shoes, and a blue sport coat, Wyden stood at a podium between the American and Oregon flags before a packed school gymnasium, a crowd that Willamette Week estimates at over 3,000. Just after the end of the first month of the Trump presidency, Wyden passionately responded to an audience that brought a range of urgent questions.
Wyden opened by describing what he called the “Oregon Way,” which is “independent, respectful of everyone, and valuing common ground.” Throughout the town hall, he returned several times to a vision of “vintage Oregon,” where values “transcend party.” He drew attention to the David Douglas School District, in particular, as one with a large immigrant population where over 70 languages are spoken. This is a “critical moment in American history,” he exclaimed, and described the question and answer session as “your time to educate me.”
A small group of students, described as “DREAMers” — in reference to the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act — took the stage to thunderous applause and a standing ovation to tell their stories and call for the defense of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the 2012 executive order that allows children brought to the United States illegally to apply for temporary work permits. The students stated that over 19,00 people are part of this program in Oregon, and they gave Wyden letters to take to Washington that tell their stories. Wyden said he was co-sponsoring legislation to protect the information gathered under this program so that it couldn’t be used to deport people. The question of immigrants’ rights was another popular theme during the afternoon, and Wyden expressed a desire to make Oregon a sanctuary state and described the U.S. as a nation of immigrants.
In response to a question about how to channel energy into real action, Wyden emphasized the need to “speak out, push back and offer alternatives.” He recalled White House advisor Stephen Miller’s recent statement that “the power of the president shall not be questioned” about an un-corroborated claim that over three million people voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election. He called several times for Oregon’s vote-by-mail program to be made national. Since it provides a paper trail, it can also function as a response to allegations of Russian hacking. Wyden said we must have either a “real investigation” or an “independent commission” that looks into “interference” and “obstruction.”
A letter Wyden referenced calling for Jeff Sessions to recuse himself has now proven impactful during the week after this town hall session. Recalling his father’s work as a journalist, he said, “an independent press is worth fighting for.” He expressed concern over self-censorship and committed to open hearings, subpoenas, and de-classification of documents. He noted Lindsey Graham’s comments as evidence that these issues could appeal across party-lines and stated that he is co-chair of a crucial whistleblower caucus.
Wyden insisted that he would be relentless in his effort to push Trump to release his tax returns, since this is connected to the “heart of the legitimacy of our government.” He insisted to thunderous applause that the issue “will not be swept under the rug.”
Wyden argued for the need to transform our two-tiered tax system (one for working people and a second for the wealthy) into a single system. Describing U.S. Secretary of the Treasury , Steven Mnuchin, as the “foreclosure king,” he clamored that we should not “give up on this fight” for tax justice.
Turning his attention to health care in response to a question, he argued that the Republicans’ policy is more like “repeal and run” and that they lack the support to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Wyden said Democrats have several tools to revise the system, such as making insurance pools bigger. Either way, he said we should “not eliminate protection for people with pre-existing conditions” and we are “not going back to a time when healthcare was only for the healthy and wealthy.”
The crowd was overwhelmingly supportive of Wyden, except for one moment when he was pressed to “answer the question” and another when his repeated descriptions of young members of the crowd as “students” but was corrected by someone who said “not all of us are students.”
Perhaps the most thunderous applause exploded from the crowd when a questioner asked about what line needed to be crossed in order to consider impeachment. The foot stomping caused the gym floor to vibrate. While he said that this action would require support from the House of Representatives, Wyden said he would “take nothing off the table” and returned to the issue of Russia and tax returns. He vowed to push for legislation that would press Trump to “make his tax returns public,” something that has been done by presidents for some forty years.
Reminding the crowd that he had been the first senator to vote in favor of gay marriage and that he had fought for “death with dignity,” Wyden committed to use the filibuster to oppose the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court . He expressed concern about the nominee’s record on women’s rights, in particular. Gorsuch’s views are “out of the mainstream,” Wyden said, while proudly proclaiming that he would do “everything [he can] to oppose this nominee.”
The discussion also covered the question of climate change and Wyden said that he had voted against Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency. We need to use the “power of the purse” and “keep pushing back” on this issue, he exclaimed. Wyden also noted that Oregon State University has a new grant for wave energy and Central Oregon is working with geothermal power. On this topic, one crowd member repeatedly yelled out, “Divest! Divest!.”
In closing, Wyden admitted he doesn’t “have all the answers” and reminded the crowd that he had been against the war in Iraq and opposes soldiers on the ground in Syria. He ended with a passionate commitment to “not give an inch” on getting an “independent, impartial investigation of Russia,” “the effort to not wreck the Affordable Care Act,” and “standing up for the DREAMers.” He also said he would “use all of the tools” to “battle for Oregon values every day.” Afterwards, the crowd appeared inspired and energized as people filtered towards the exits.
— Nicholas Kramer
